Portuguese man sentenced in illegal border crossing

BANGOR, Maine — A Portuguese man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to one year in federal prison for re-entering the country illegally.

Luis Cabral De Resendes, 41, is expected to be deported after his release and banned from returning to the U.S.

He was arrested in June shortly after Nicholas G. Olmstead, 25, of Woodstock, New Brunswick, was arrested.

Cabral De Resendes was charged with illegal re-entry into the U.S. because he was deported in 2008, according to court documents. Olmstead was charged with bringing an alien into the U.S.

Olmstead was sentenced on Sept. 27 to time served — approximately 102 days — and returned to Canada. He also is banned from returning to the U.S.

The men were held without bail while awaiting the resolution of their cases.

Both pleaded guilty in July to their respective charges.

U.S. Border Patrol agents on June 17 stopped Olmstead in Houlton after his car was spotted crossing the border at a location known as Starkey’s Corner instead of at a designated port of entry, according to court documents.

How the car was detected was not explained in court documents.

Olmstead saw the agents behind him and pulled off to the side of the road before they activated any emergency lights. Court documents do not identify on which road Olmstead was stopped.

Without being questioned, Olmstead volunteered that he had “just dropped off a guy from Portugal” at a Houlton motel and did not want any trouble. The Canadian told investigators that Cabral De Resendes paid him about $20 to drive him across the border at Houlton.

As they approached the Houlton Port of Entry, Cabral De Resendes told Olmstead he did not have a passport and directed him to a road nearby that was blocked by a large orange gate with a sign that said either “Do Not Enter” or “Dead End,” according to the prosecution’s version of events to which both men pleaded guilty.

Olmstead told investigators that he dropped off Cabral De Resendes at the motel, then stopped at a convenience store before heading back to Canada the way he had come. That’s when he spotted Border Patrol agents and pulled over.

Cabral De Resendes was picked up across the street from the motel, according to court documents. He was deported from the U.S. two years ago and removed again earlier this year.

Olmstead faced up to 10 years in prison, while Cabral De Resendes faced up to two years in prison. Both men also could be fined up to $250,000.